HOLLYWOOD -- After five decades as an actor, there's precious little about the profession that will surprise or elate Sean Connery.

There's a strong buzz in Hollywood that Connery will receive a best-actor nomination for his performance in Finding Forrester.

It's a quiet drama about an aging, reclusive Pulitzer Prize-winning author who tutors a young African-American student in the intricacies of life and literature.

"I'm very refreshed by the response to this movie," Connery says. "An Oscar nomination would be nice. It would certainly help Columbia Pictures to market the film."

Connery won a best-supporting Oscar in 1987 for his portrayal of an Irish cop in The Untouchables.

"I hope people will see Finding Forrester, especially young people. Literacy is an important issue these days. We have a generation that doesn't read nearly enough any more.

"I've talked to people whose teenage children discovered the joys of reading. They all say the experience changed the relationships they have with their children. That's the power of literature."

Don't assume Connery was blown away when he received Mike Rich's screenplay for Finding Forrester three years ago.

"It wasn't as rich a film when I first got it, but I could see the potential. I stayed with the same screenwriter through the whole development process," says Connery, who chose Gus Van Sant as his director based on the filmmaker's success with Good Will Hunting.

"After Gus came aboard, we continued working on the screenplay until the last minute. We shot in Toronto and came in two weeks early so we could rehearse and do a final script polish."

Connery says from the beginning that he was determined "not to allow the script to get sentimental. I wanted people to believe the relationship between Forrester and the young black boy could actually develop.

"When I felt we'd achieved that goal, I agreed it was time to film it, but we still had another big problem.

"We had to find a black kid who could do all the things the script required and still be just 16. Until we found Rob Brown, I was prepared to scrap the whole film."

The author Connery plays in Finding Forrester is a man who penned an award-winning first novel and then virtually disappeared. His novel continued to thrill each new generation of readers and to become a staple in classrooms around the world, but the man himself remained an enigma.

"It's difficult not to think of J.D. Salinger when you're creating a character like Forrester. His Catcher In The Rye has worked for every generation since it was written (in 1951).

"I'm not playing Salinger but his ghost was always near at hand."

Forrester closets himself in his Bronx apartment with his books and his royalty cheques. He hated celebrity. He shunned fame. That's not unlike Connery himself.

"I've avoided many of the pitfalls of fame by choosing not to live in Los Angeles," Connery says.

"You're not nearly as visible if you don't live in L.A. I walk anywhere I want in the world. I go to soccer matches and boxing matches. People probably recognize me but they don't accost me."

Talk about understatement.

Since he played James Bond, Connery has become one of the most recognizable faces and voices in the entertainment world. Every time a new Bond film is in pre-production, there is talk that Connery will return as the villain.

"They can't afford me. They need that money for all the technical gimmicks.

"It was the shift into all that high-tech stuff that put me off the series and hastened my departure. I'm not good at all that stuff."

Connery admits he likes what Pierce Brosnan is doing with the Bond franchise.

"I thought he was very good in The World Is Not Enough. His approach is closer to what I was doing, even if it is a little more politically correct."

Connery is confident that Brosnan won't be the last Bond. "They'll still be doing these films 10 years down the line."

Connery would like another stab at playing Indiana Jones' father. His first foray in 1989 in Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade netted him Oscar and Golden Globe nominations as best supporting actor.

"I had real fun doing Indiana Jones. Now that was something I really liked doing and would have no hesitation returning to."


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